Tentacle-Free Anime:"The Princess and the Pilot" (2011)

Who doesn't love a good war story? I love a good war story as history has always fascinated me and wars are usually the most exciting part. Or at least that last part is what my history teacher used to tell me. Today I am here to tell you about a war story. Long forgotten because a) It is set in an alternate, fictional world, and b) It's not really a well-known anime. Not that I know of, anyways. So, without further ado...

Summary: As a beautiful daughter of the noble family del Moral, Juana was proposed by Prince Carlo, who is the crown prince of their country Levamme. However, since Levamme is at war with Amatsukami the marriage had to wait until the war ends. Meanwhile, as a bestado, the lowest caste in Levamme, Charles had always dreamed of flying and eventually became the ace pilot of the air force. Although he was often mistreated, a glorious chance came about when the Amatsukami bombarded del Moral's home in order to get rid of the future empress. Charles was then entrusted with the top secret mission of delivering the princess to the prince. [AnimeNewsNetwork.com]

﻿Two kingdoms at war. A small island caught in the middle. And on that island is a woman born and bred to become the next Princess of the Levamme Kingdom. It's never stated why these two kingdoms are at war, and it doesn't need to. This movie focuses solely on Charles' mission to get the future Princess, Juana to their Prince and in that 3-day journey and this short-lived movie resides a powerful story of survival and duty. Of power and peasantry, of what it means to be a hero and a soldier, and of becoming a genuine human being.

The movie starts out well enough - we meet Juana, a young Princess grown to know the ways of proper, fine upper class society and what it means to be royal. The lifelessness in her face is quite apparent and it's easy to see how she fakes her way through excitedly meeting the Prince she will be marrying. Cut to a year later, after the Prince vows to destroy the enemy Amatsukami within' the year before marrying his bride, and the war has only escalated. It is a nice touch of realism and of how wars generally go. In fact, this entire movie is peppered with nice touches of realism, some of which I will mention.

Events escalate quite quickly and it becomes apparent that Juana can no longer stay on her island and must now go live with the Prince post-haste. We then move our attention to the young Charles, a bestado who is half Levamme and half Amatsukami. He is looked down upon by his fellow officers, but is noticed for his superior fighting skills against his upperclassmen in the Air Force.

​However, what seems like a simple “You are the best we have, please keep the Princess safe” clear cut mission, will later turn into something much deeper and connected, but we'll talk about that in a bit. It's nice to know that regardless of his origin the Air Force IS aware of how good Charles is and so he's chosen to be the Princess' escort past enemy lines on this perilous journey.

When the two meet the first potential cracks in the movie begin to appear as Charles seems reminded of a female child he once met when he too was a child upon meeting the Princess. It's at this point I had figured out the plotline of the movie: the two are going to fall in love, they're going to be revealed as childhood friends – who possibly made a promise to one another about getting married later on in life – and either one of them was going to die or they are both going to elope happily at the end of the movie.

Boy, was I wrong about all of that.

Juana learns that you have to be strong in order to survive

This is where I stop describing the play-by-play of the film and get into the real meat of the story which really starts after the two begin their journey together. The Princess is shown to be naive in the ways of war, but she isn't stupid. Being a more reasonable person to work with than what one would initially believe, it's in her 3-day journey that Juana grows from a naive young Princess to a battle-hardened warrior. And it feels genuine through small moments, and big moments of life or death when it becomes all too apparent that their mission has been compromised and the enemy is hot on their tale. The Princess learns to think on her own as someone who must take life by her own hands if she is to survive it.

The best moment of this realization comes in two parts. The first, when we discover Juana doesn't have any basic gun training. She later realizes the only way they'll survive an attack is if she shoots the enemy with her single rear-gun the plane Charles is flying has built into it, and then can't fire it because she doesn't know there is a safety which leads to her having Charles teach her how to shoot it. The second is much like a Miyazaki film when the beautiful Princess cuts her long, lush hair to a more short tomboyish length, because she understands that in battle her hair is going to get in the way.

The Princess is the hope in this story, and Charles is the reality. Before I mentioned the possible childhood best friend route - something I was incredibly wary of as I felt it had no place in this kind of story. Well, thankfully the writers felt the same as it's no childhood best friend story, but merely the realization that she was the one pretty girl who helped cheer him up after he was beaten up many years ago. One of the few people in life to show him kindness, something important to him but just another fleeting moment in the life of the Princess.

Bestado is a derogatory term in this film, much like the n-word. At the point this film takes place these “bestados” or half-breeds are severely looked down upon by the Levamme people. So Charles had a rough life growing up. It becomes even more heart breaking when it's revealed that Charles' mission is to deliver the Princess to a lone battle ship of the Levamme Navy, whom will then take her to shore and be forever etched into history as the ones who saved the Princess. And Charles, a bestado, forever wiped from history and his due credit as the true hero of the day.

In war no one is safe, not even the main character

It's incredibly emotional and also still relevant to today's societal struggles in still developing countries. There is a clear power struggle at the heart of this movie. Without spoiling things, I can only tell you the events that transpire at the end send a pretty powerful message about staying committed to what you believe in and to what is right.

Speaking of the ending ever so briefly, it's the last few seconds of the film that cause the most reaction just before the credits roll. I won't spoil it, but while I personally understand why they ended this film the way they did, I also understand why most people won't enjoy it. Or even flat out won’t like it. So the ending is hit or miss and hopefully won't cement your overall feelings for whether you end up liking this film or not. But you'll see what I mean when you check this movie out.

And I do suggest checking it out.

The action in this movie is made up entirely of dog fights between Charles and the enemy Amatsukami and they are beautiful fights, using actual battle strategy and attention to detail about how planes maneuver when in battle. It adds more touches of realism in what could've been a weak one-sided fight that then turns every fight into a true struggle for life and death. There are plenty of moments like this in the movie, mostly during the dog fights, which kept me on my toes and also kept me from truly knowing what was going to happen next.

Introducing beautiful CGI dog fights

This was a war movie done right in every way. It's how Pearl Harbor should have been filmed, instead of making it a love story. It's about two people forced into a situation neither of them want and making the best of it in order to survive. There are fleeting moments of possible sexual or romantic tension between Charles and Juana, but they are just that: fleeting, as both know they cannot have the other, and so neither one makes a move. They simply survive together.

Animation for this film is also gorgeous. Again evoking that feel of a Miyazaki film from the realistic approach to planes and how they move down to the strong female main character who starts out with long hair and then gets it cut short by the end in order to evoke growth into womanhood. However, unlike some Miyazaki films, there are multifaceted beats to the story and the characters, as well as true growth that doesn't feel either rushed or stalled.

If it weren't for the final seconds of the film, which again I do understand why they did it that way, I could potentially call this a 5 out of 5 masterpiece. There's just so much more good than bad, and I really didn't see any bad when watching it. The Princess and the Pilot taught me real quick not to judge things early on, but instead to look deeper within and let the experience take me on an epic journey set in a perilous war time.

The Princess and the Pilot is available subbed for legal streaming on Hulu. Please, go watch it. And enjoy.